


It's How You Say "Demon"

by radstarmuffin



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Another Episode, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Vague Mentions of Abuse, also we r diverging greatly from the continuity but whos to say thats a bad thing, but definitely theres no The Tragedy, but just in case, but nothing is in detail, i know that this is dangan n its basically a given that theres messed up stuff, no junko here sorry lads, not exactly an Everything's Alright au, special shoutout to maki's free time events for making this fic possible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-24
Updated: 2019-09-24
Packaged: 2020-10-26 09:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,380
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20739980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radstarmuffin/pseuds/radstarmuffin
Summary: It's chaos, but that's nothing new. Nagisa is completely prepared for chaos.What Nagisa isn't prepared for is the strangeteenagerinvading the chaos."It's How You Say It" is my project name for fics focusing on interactions between Danganronpa characters who share the same English voice actor. In this case: Erica Mendez (Maki Harukawa & Nagisa Shingetsu)





	It's How You Say "Demon"

**Author's Note:**

> so last year me and my friend and danganronpa partner in crime (and my beta, thanks pal) were scanning the imdb pages for the games, as one does, and we realized that every one of the V3 cast for the English dub had had a part in the franchise previously...
> 
> and, as one does, while procrastinating writing the mukuro-centric fic i've had in my drafts for over a year, i got possessed <strike>(by atua)</strike> and wrote this in a haze one night (also almost a year ago). It's nice and edited now though, so enjoy!

It's chaos, but that's nothing new. Nagisa is completely prepared for chaos.

What Nagisa isn't prepared for is the strange  _ teenager _ invading the chaos.

Even though she's standing off to the side, somehow she seems like the eye of a storm. Deceptively calm, completely undisturbed by everything whirling around her. The harsh way she's glaring at all the other children isn't really helping.

Since everyone else seems content to avoid her and not engage, it's up to Nagisa to get this  _ demon _ out of the orphanage.  _ (Or…almost-demon, at any rate. It doesn't ever seem to make much difference in the end.) _

Taking a deep breath, Nagisa makes his way over to her. She isn't quite facing him, but once he takes his first steps pointedly in her direction, he swears he can see her long ponytails twitch and writhe like snakes, waiting for their prey to come  _ just  _ close enough. She doesn't move, not really, but her eye flicks back towards him, even though it should have been too loud with everything else going on for her to notice him yet.

_ (Just like a demon…) _

The direct eye contact gives Nagisa the slightest pause, but even with the icicles in his spine there's no way he can back down now. Everyone's expectations are riding on him.

She sizes him up. He wonders, briefly, illogically, if she can tell he's gained a little weight. That he'd need a larger dosage than before. She wasn't there, he would remember that, but maybe she  _ knows _ , somehow.

Although, based on the way she seems to look right through him a moment after her initial appraisal, scanning the room once more, it would seem more likely that she doesn't. If she knew, if she had expectations, she would be watching him more closely.

Even though the almost-demon isn't looking at him anymore, Nagisa barely gets within five feet of her before she growls, "Do you want to die?"

He stops at four feet away. It's foolish to push too hard with a demon, but she's not fully-fledged, and it's not like a member of the Warriors of Hope would let that scare them anyway. Since Monaca is at a checkup, Jotaro's new sculpture just got knocked over and trampled on by some younger kids, and Kotoko and Masaru are fighting over who gets to be the ruler of the Wrestling Princess's dollhouse today, Nagisa is basically the de facto leader right now. And the leader of the Warriors of Hope could never let some nasty  _ demon _ beat them.

Nagisa decides the smartest course of action is to answer her question with another question. "I don't know, do  _ you  _ want to die? The Warriors of Hope could arrange that for you."

_ (That should keep her busy. Demons love to hear themselves talk.) _

It doesn't. She finally turns to face him fully, and Nagisa gets the chilling feeling that even a Warrior like him wouldn't stand a chance against her, not really. Apparently, she doesn’t want to hear herself talk because all she does is glare and glare and  _ glare. _

Funnily enough, as scary as it is at first, the longer she glares, the less frightening it gets. In fact, Nagisa feels like he almost recognizes the look in her eyes, and it's nothing like what any of the other demons ever look like.

"You know… If you don’t  _ want _ to be here, you could just  _ leave, _ " Nagisa prods. Maybe this problem won't be so hard to solve after all.

She doesn't seem to like this idea much, but while her face darkens considerably, it also softens. Nagisa's getting the feeling that she really would prefer to leave, but for some reason she can't.

"I'm…looking for someone."

"A kid?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Well, that won't do. The whole point of talking to her in the first place was to make sure she wouldn't go anywhere near the others. "Then… you’re out of luck. There aren't any kids here," Nagisa claims, as confidently as possible. Lying isn't his strong suit, but he'll try everything he can.

All the demon girl does is give him a flat look before slowly gazing out at all the kids running around the orphanage at that very second. He can't tell with her dark bangs hiding her forehead, but he could guess that she's raising an eyebrow at him skeptically.

"I'm serious! You won't find what you're looking for here!"

Her dark red eyes fall closed as she sighs heavily. She murmurs, "Well, if she's not here right now, there isn't anything I can do about it, anyways."

Alarm bells are buzzing in Nagisa's head --  _ evacuate all personnel, danger _ \-- but if this unknown demon is hunting for Monaca, he absolutely _ cannot _ let her know he has any information she might want. After all, Monaca is the only kid who should be at the orphanage but isn't.

"That's right, so you might as we-elll…" Nagisa's voice is strangled into silence by the weight of her stare pinning him in place once again.

She doesn't call his bluff, though. Instead, she sighs again, softer than last time. Looking around the room, she says, "It's no use, is it? Even the oldest kids here are too young to remember me, so there's no reason she would still be here…"

Nagisa blinks. The demon's red eyes are on him again, but this time there's no heat or chill, only a mild resignation. And she's talking  _ to  _ him. Not over him, like he's too stupid to understand.

"Umm… Are you saying that you've been here before?"

"…" Those red eyes flicker over to the other side of the room, where the Head Demon's office is. As was often the case, one of the Business Suit Demons is in there with the Head Demon right now, chatting her up. Nagisa hates all the demons, but so far none of the demons allowed to enter the orphanage have done anything worthy of action. They were far from in the clear, and none of the Warriors were about to let their guards down any time soon, but so far the  _ adults _ here mostly keep to themselves.

For a moment it seems like the teenage almost-demon forgets Nagisa is even there, like she can see a monster he can't, but before Nagisa can speculate what kind of monsters the girl likes to imagine, she answers, "Yes. I used to live here, a long time ago."

"Oh." This was the most shocking thing about this demon thus far. Of course, demons had to come from  _ somewhere _ , and not everyone was smart enough to promise to never become one, like the Warriors of Hope. Still, it was hard to imagine.

"Do you not believe me?"

"Well, not exactly… But I can't picture anyone in the orphanage ever looking like  _ you  _ do." So…big. Maybe he has seen the anger and fear in her eyes before, but on her it's… Off. It's not what he's used to, and that's making him feel like he did when Masaru convinced him to try to beat his record number of spins-while-resting-your-forehead-on-a-baseball-bat.  _ ("It's fun, right???" No. It really wasn't.) _

"Do you want to  _ die? _ " she practically spits at him. Oops. Maybe he shouldn't have compared her to children? Demons really hate that, don't they.

That said, Nagisa realizes he hasn't really considered this question properly yet. After some deliberation, he decides, "No. Not yet. I still have things I need to do."

This gives her pause for a moment. Even though he's sure she's appraised him many times already, she gives him another once-over. But this time, somehow it feels like she's really  _ looking _ . When she's satisfied, she looks…sad, almost. Like now that she knew what she was looking for, she found it even though she didn't want to. Nagisa's not sure what  _ it _ is, though. He hasn't changed at all the whole time he's been standing in front of her.

"…I see. Well, if you don’t want to die and you can't help me find my friend, I guess we're done here."

"Your…friend? I thought you were looking for a kid?" Nagisa is genuinely confused. Unless this is another  _ adult _ thing where they  _ say  _ they're your friend to get you to let your guard down and do what they tell you to do.

She turns her head to watch a couple of the younger kids go flying by, deep into a game of tag. Watching them, she replies, "When I lived here, I had a friend who was younger than me." She glances at Nagisa before continuing, "She would be older than you, though. I haven't had a chance to visit since I… left…, so I was hoping she would still be here."

Nagisa makes a nothing-noise. He thinks it's annoying when the demons do it, but he's not really sure what to say. He can't imagine what it would be like to have to leave any of his friends behind, but it would be worse if they weren't still here waiting for him when he came back. It would suck. He can't think of any other way to put it, so he simply says as much. "That sucks."

Before the teenager can respond, there's a loud bang as a scuffle knocks part of the dollhouse over. Kotoko successfully knocks Masaru down and claims Princess Fisticuffs (and therefore the right to Rule the Ring) for herself. Nagisa knows where this is going. His fears are confirmed when he hears Masaru complain loudly, "That's not  _ fair! _ You  _ cheated! _ " The redhead already has tears welling in his eyes.

Nagisa groans, drawing a particular pair of red eyes away from the fight. Squirming, Nagisa only hesitates a moment before he explains, "They're friends of mine. I… should probably go stop them. It'll only get worse when Kotoko starts gloating, and if Masaru cries, he won't forgive her all week… It looks like this is going to be a bad one."

Those sharp eyes narrow on him. "Do you… take care of your friends like that often?"

He stands up to his full height. "I'm an important part of the Warriors of Hope, and I have to make sure we all get along. Everyone's got high expectations for me."

She frowns, like that  _ isn't  _ something he should be proud of. Shows what she knows. He gets ready to explain  _ exactly _ why it's a good thing, but before he can open his mouth, she says, "Would you like some help?"

And  _ there  _ it is. She really is like all the other demons, after all. She doesn't even think he knows how to keep his friends from tearing each other to shreds, she thinks she's better than him, she--

"I know what it’s like. I remember some of the tricks that worked best back when I lived here. I know I would have appreciated help back then."

He narrows his eyes at her, suspiciously. There's no way she really means that. She has to be trying to prove her superiority, or she wants him to do something in exchange.

She scoffs at him. Or, wait, was that a laugh? Is she blushing? "I get it. You don't trust me. Look. Your friend over there with the pink hair, she likes cute things, right? I'm going to go over and offer to fix her hair. You can help your other friend, or not. It's your choice."

"Wait!" Before she can get too far, Nagisa grabs her sleeve. He has to know. "Why? What do you want from us?"

Her surprise quickly turns into something else. Something dark, but soft, like before. He's not totally sure what it is, but it's making this difficult. He really wants to believe her, but he knows that's  _ exactly _ what the demons want.

She glances to the Head Demon's office again. The face she makes at the office is much different than the one she was making at Nagisa a second ago. It gives him the chills. 

When she turns towards him again, no sign of either previous expression remains. She's resolute, and she speaks directly to Nagisa, even though she doesn't bend down or lower herself to his height at all. Her voice is firm but not unkind when she says, "It's good that you don't trust me. I'm a stranger and you know nothing about me; I wouldn't trust me either. And you're right. There is something I want from you. I don’t expect you to make promises to a stranger like me, but what I want is for you to make sure you don’t give up. Make sure you keep your friends together. Don't abandon them like I did to mine."

She's definitely blushing now. Nagisa's not sure what to do, so he just watches while she plays with one of her pigtails. Absentmindedly, he murmurs, "Expectations…"

She's looking far away, at something from the past. "Yeah. My friends had high expectations of me, and I… left them behind because I thought it was best. I don't regret it, but… If," again, her eyes find the office, " _ someone _ gives you a tough decision, just remember that you can't always fix everything. And," she turns to a cackling Kotoko standing over a barely-held together Masaru, "that there are things worth fighting for, and more than one way to do it."

Nagisa isn't sure what to do with all that. He feels like he only understood some of it, like he wasn't working hard enough and there's still pieces left floating too far out of reach. As he struggles to stretch far enough to grasp those pieces, the not-yet demon notices his confused expression and tugs at one of her pigtails, blushing yet again.

"…Sorry. I laid it on kind of thick, didn't I? Don’t worry about what I said, I--"

"Kotoko doesn't like anyone else touching her hair," Nagisa interrupts, "least of all a de-- um,  _ grown-up _ like you."

Said grown-up's eyes widen, but otherwise she doesn't react to being cut off, which is lucky.

Before she can potentially realize what he's done, he barrels on, "She won't want you to fix her hair, but your hair is really long and pretty. I'm sure she'd love to be able to play with yours."

"Hm." The teenager makes her own nothing-noise, only for some reason Nagisa doesn't hate it as much as he usually does. "Thank you for telling me." And then, for the first time since he's seen her, the not-demon  _ smiles _ . Not a big, fake, cheeks-hurting smile like Kotoko uses to charm whoever she wants. Not one that might as well be a grimace, that means everything a smile doesn't, like Jataro uses when he makes fun of himself. A real one, a small one, like when Monaca figures out a particularly vexing puzzle for the first time before anyone else.

He doesn't fully realize it until it's too late to stop it, but he smiles back. "Thank you for being the distraction. Kotoko is loud." As the girl's face twists at the lack of appeal of a loud child, Nagisa laughs quietly and rushes off to help peel Masaru off the floor before she can change her mind.

Masaru's loud too, after all, and Nagisa barely has any focus to waste on anyone else while he tries to calm his fellow Warrior down. 

Once he's back to his usual happy-go-lucky self, Masaru wants to go apologize to Kotoko for accusing her of cheating (as usual), and he convinces Nagisa to tag along and back him up (as usual).

Somehow, even though they're both hopeless when it comes to understanding Kotoko's "totes adorbs" vision, they get roped into being her "stylist assistants" and stand around holding her supplies while she gets to work on "Big Sis's" hair with a signature smile plastered to her face. Eventually, most of the kids end up surrounding the newcomer, some helping to create some weird elaborate updo out of braids, some to hold supplies like Nagisa and Masaru, and in the end even Jataro and the quieter kids get roped into making hand-made custom hair clips that look like butterflies and flowers.

The rest of the afternoon goes by in a flash. As he sits beside the teen, who is decidedly now the center of a storm with no eye, he asks if she has any other good ideas for resolving conflicts in the orphanage. She rolls her eyes at his teasing, but then she actually does give him a fair amount of sound advice. By the time the "Super Duper L'il Hair Stylists" have finished their "totes super amazing and adorbs" masterpiece, Nagisa actually feels like he's learned some things.

Even though she complained the whole time, the now made-over not-demon doesn't look like she's actually mad. On the contrary, it seems like she enjoyed herself. Though, it would have been hard to look particularly mad anyway, considering all the colorful butterflies and flowers, the long skinny clips (Nagisa thinks he heard someone call them bear-its?) holding the stray strands in, and all sorts of loopy braids wrapped around her head like a mess of straps and rope.

"Ridiculous" is a word Nagisa would use. He's definitely sure he's never seen any demon look this pleased to be laughed at.

When the Demon Grunts come to usher all the kids off to bed, Nagisa notices a conspicuous head of black hair disappearing into the Head Demon's office.

Before they fall asleep, Nagisa asks the others what they had thought of the teenager. Kotoko says she had "Lots of fun making the scary demon lady look totes adorbs!!" Nagisa could tell by the way her smile wasn't just an act that she actually meant it, even if she wouldn’t admit as much. Jataro was happy she had hated the flowers and butterflies he had designed so much, though Nagisa suspects he was also happy that she had worn them, despite her complaining. Masaru thought it was awesome that she'd shown off her juggling skills for him, and he attempts to copy her right up until he has the unused clips he's (unsuccessfully) throwing around taken away from him by a Demon Grunt so he can "be a good boy and go to bed."

The next day, everything is back to normal. Other than the neatly arranged pile of clips and hair ties left stacked on the art table. (Jataro swears that there’s one less clip left there than the total amount they made. He claims he's glad at least one of them ended up where it belonged -- in the trash. Nagisa pretends not to notice the way he quietly checks all the trash cans in the building, nor the smile he's wearing when his search is proved fruitless.)

She's gone just as abruptly as she had arrived. Nagisa never sees her again, not that he particularly wants to see an almost-demon like her again. In fact, whatever she said when she went into the office must have upset the other adults, because the Suit Demons stop coming, too. They probably decided it was about time she became a full demon, like them, and took her away to complete the process. Or maybe she just needed demon backup to help find her friend.

Whatever the case, she does not return to the orphanage, and neither does anyone older than him but younger than her who might have been looking for her. Not that Nagisa pays attention for anyone like that.

As he puts some of the tips she had given him into practice, Nagisa realizes he had learned something else that day. Maybe teenagers weren't  _ quite _ as awful as adults. It necessitated further research, but if it was true, it meant that he and the rest of the Warriors of Hope had some extra time to figure out what they were going to do to avoid becoming demons.

Remembering her serious face when she'd asked him not to abandon his friends, and her "annoyed" smiles and blushes when everyone was doing her hair, Nagisa is sure it has to be true. So until he can figure out what he’s going to do about growing up, he’ll just continue to use all her tricks to take care of his fellow children.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!! If you liked that, I will say that it's essentially "part one" and that i definitely had plans for at least a few more fics like this (like, separate AUs specific for interaction between the other same-VA characters. actually, the Leon & Shuichi one is half done currently...)
> 
> In case anyone's interested, here's my [tumblr](https://randomstarmuffin.tumblr.com) (main) and my [art tumblr](https://pitter-patt-art.tumblr.com) (only art and writing updates) :P
> 
> Oh, btw, highly recommend looking at the voice cast yourself if you've played the games with the English dub. Some of them are obvious, but some of them will mess you up real good (I'm lookin at you Kiibo, Kirumi, and Rantaro). Voice actors are so talented... Oh, and for the record, I do like the Japanese cast too, but since Japan allows more than, like, 5 seiyuus to exist at any one time... they aren't double cast in the same way (minus the purposeful Makoto and Nagito) so i can't have fun themed fics about it. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


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